"Color Graces", the new photo series by Korean American artist Debbie Han, combines the bodies of racially diverse women with heads from classical European sculptures into hybridized metaphorical beings. Begun in 2013 as an evolution of her earlier "Graces" series, this new series differs from the previous in its contextual direction. In the "Graces" series, Han incorporates the bodies of Asian women to convey her critical view of contemporary cultural dynamics. She examines the ways in which internalized social values affect individuals by shaping their identities and perceptions of the world. The new "Color Graces" series, however, incorporates women of diverse and distinct body types, skin colors, and ethnic origins in an effort to transcend their differences and address the essence of life and consciousness.
● Han’s new project seems to have resulted out of natural interactions with multi-racial and ethnic women in the everyday life of Los Angeles where the artist grew up. The social conceptions and traditions of a nation are generally cultivated in accord with factors including but not limited to its distinct culture, language, and climate. These consequently shape the different social, political, and economic views of each nation. Han considers these processes to be critical in contributing to ongoing conflicts between individuals and nations. It is the fate of a human race whose earthly bodies, like those of any other animal species, instinctually struggle for survival and prosperity. Civilization to its current state has evolved through great effort and reflection. More than at any other time, the contemporary global social structure needs a new paradigm of thinking to bring each person and each nation closer. Debbie Han’s "Color Graces" series investigates the differences and diversities of external appearance to arrive at the core common experience of life. As suggested by the work title "To See What Eyes Cannot See, To Hear What Ears Cannot Hear, To Speak What Words Cannot Say", the artist is focused on the foundation of human consciousness beyond physical function or form. Another work titled "Season of Being IV"presents grief and pain in life as a metaphorical season of winter.
● Although the hybridized figures presented in Han’s photo series portray a great diversity of skin colors and body types, they do not possess their own authentic faces. All the heads depicted are artifacts from the past with specific racial and aesthetic contexts. These hybridized beings of human/ sculpture, past/ present, and the real/ideal seem simultaneously familiar and strange. Could such "strangeness" hint at the very human fate that is bound in perpetuity to social regulations and systems?
Korean American artist Debbie Han currently lives in New York and divides her time between her studios in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. She came to Korea on an artist residency program and worked in Korea from 2003 – 2011. After her solo exhibition at Sungkok Museum in Seoul in 2012, Han returned to Los Angeles and took a brief pause to recover from her prolific production and global exhibition schedule. Han started the "Color Graces" series in Los Angeles in 2013. Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York Chelsea who represents Han featured her works at Art Chicago and The Armory Show. Having started as a painter, Han turned to sculpture, installation, photography, and ceramics in her cultivation of her authentic visual form. In 2014, Han returned to painting for the first time in seventeen years.
● Debbie Han is scheduled for three solo exhibitions in 2015. In January, Trunk Gallery in Seoul will present Han’s new photo works. In June, Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York will feature her paintings for the first time. In November, Braun Falco Gallery in Munich will present her paintings and photography.
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